Questions & Answers

What is "Stewardship" ?
Remember the parable of the three servants who looked after the master's money while he was gone?  The first two servants invested the money wisely, but the third was punished for having done nothing with what was given him.  (See Matthew 25:14-30.)   He was a poor steward of his master's goods.  A steward is someone trusted to manage an employer's affairs and possessions.  We have each been trusted with talents and strengths to use in God's service and to further his mission.  He expects us to use these gifts to help others know him, love him, serve him, and be happy with him in Heaven.
Today, stewardship means committing the best portion of our time, talent, and treasure to the mission of the Church.  Generous sharing of resources, including money, is central to caring for God's Church and his people.  When you realize that everything you do is from God, then you want to give back to God in thanksgiving.  That's modern day stewardship in action.
If Jesus paid for our sins, why is Confession necessary?
Jesus' sacrifice paid the price for our sins "once for all" (Hebrews 10:10), and made it possible for us to go to Heaven.  It did not make us sinless.  We retain the inclination to sin.  Fortunately for us, God's mercy is greater than our sins.  On Easter evening, Jesus gave to his Apostles the power to forgive (or not forgive) sins in his name.  "He breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.  Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained'" (John 20:22-23).  "Christ has willed that.......his whole Church should be the sign and instrument of the forgiveness and reconciliation that he acquired for us at the price of his blood" (CCC 1455).
In Confession, we receive God's loving mercy, his forgiveness, and the grace to make a fresh start.  Although we experience Confession with the priest, he is acting in the person of Christ.  Rather than deny the redeeming power of his sacrifice, the sacrament of Confession continues its effects.
What is the difference between feast days and solemnities?
Feasts and solemnities differ in terms of their importance.
Solemnities are the highest rank of celebration in the Church.  Christmas, Easter, All Saints Day, the Ascension, Corpus Christi, and other celebrations of events in the life of Jesus are solemnities.  There are fewer solemnities than feast days.  These days are like Sundays but they aren't always Holy Days of Obligation.  We say both the Gloria and the Creed on such days.  "Thus recalling the mysteries of the redemption, (the Church) opens up to the faithful the riches of her Lord's powers and merits, so that these are in some way made present in every age" (CCC, #1163).  Far from being "solemn," solemnities are joyful occasions to celebrate.
Feast days honor important saints or events from the lives of Jesus and Mary.  The Catholic Church celebrates these feasts because they are snapshots in the history of the Church and of God's saving love for us.  They call to mind sacred mysteries or events recorded in the history of our redemption.
Does Original Sin make us sin?
The effects of Original Sin are frustratingly familiar.  For example, who hasn't had the temptation to ignore our conscience?  That is always a red flag that something is a sin.  Maybe it was because the temptation looked like fun, because it was easier than doing the right thing, or because someone cool was doing it.  This desire to do things that are contrary to what our conscience tells us is called "concupiscence."  St. Paul says it well: "For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want" (Romans 7:19).
The good news is that God's love is bigger than our sin.  Christ set us free from the power of sin and death.  Through his death and Resurrection, he healed humanity's broken relationship with God.  "Just as through the disobedience of one person the many were made sinners, so through the obedience of one the many will be made righteous" (Romans 5:19).  Fighting against the temptation to sin is hard, but not impossible.
Is Purgatory a real place?
Purgatory is imagined as a place, but it refers to the state and process by which a soul is purified before going to Heaven.  Someone who dies in God's grace, but who still needs purification before he or she can see God is in Purgatory.  "All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified.......... undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven" (CCC#1030).
Church tradition has described Purgatory as a purifying fire that purges us of any venial sin on our souls for which we have not repented.  "If someone's work is burned up, that one will suffer loss; the person will be saved, but only as through fire" (1 Corinthians 3:15).   Another comparison can be the pain of St. Peter's repentance after he denied our Lord.  When we see God we will experience shame and remorse for having denied him in others.  Only after this purifying pain will we be able to see God face to face.